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That's extreme. I have a car in NYC. The subway system here is amazing, while also being an embarrassment. But, the car provides the freedom to visit friends
by Cd00d 9y ago
That's extreme.
I have a car in NYC. The subway system here is amazing, while also being an embarrassment.
But, the car provides the freedom to visit friends and family for a day or weekend. The cost is $200 per month parking and $150 per month insurance, plus the cost of the car, which is relatively low as we drive less than 500 miles per month.
We can visit family in 45 minutes or 2 hours (depending on destination), instead of 3 hours or 5 hours by rail. And, we can make all our departures at will.
I can't imagine giving up car ownership, and I don't think I'm deluded.
- mysterypie 9y agoThe flexibility of having a car is undeniable. However, pretty much everyone--including the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics, Consumer Reports, and the American Automobile Association--agrees that the total cost of ownership runs to US$8000-$9000 per year for the average person. The cost might be a lot lower for you, but most people are paying a lot of money for having a car at their disposal without realizing how much they're spending.
- burfog 9y agoTime is money. He is saving about 5 hours each round trip. If his time is worth $50/hour, then $8000 for car ownership gets him 32 trips. Add a few more to account for the cost of rail ticket prices. He breaks even if he takes that trip about 3 times per month and never finds any other use for a car.
- cozzyd 9y agowould likely be better off renting with so few trips
- tmnvix 9y ago> Time is money. Consider that this way: the time you spend sitting at a desk to earn the money to pay for your car is commute time. How long does it take the average person to earn 8-9k (after tax)? I think at $50/h that might be an additional 5 hours work per week or an extra hour on your daily commute. For many people it might be more like 2+ hours. Given this, I would be very surprised if most urban dwellers wouldn't have more available time/money if they ditched the car for a bike.
- ComputerGuru 9y agoThe average person must be - forgive me - an idiot to spend that much in amortized yearly TCO on a car on the average person’s salary, then.
- hrktb 9y agoYou seem to be arguing for convenience, more than freedom per se.
- ACow_Adonis 9y agoOut of curiosity, where in NYC is this? Because I live in Melbourne, Australia, and $200 USD per month is literally what someone pays me and the spousal unit for our car space after conversion from AUD to USD, and I'm not in the CBD, and I'm assuming (i think correctly) car parking is far cheaper here than in new york city...
- emj 9y agoI've heard people pay $200-$400 for parking in Brooklyn and Glendale, also ten times that on Manhattan.
- Cd00d 9y agoBrooklyn. More specifically Park Slope / Boerum Hill / Gowanus. We are in a newer high rise with a garage on premises. The cost of parking also gets us some space to store some items.
- daemin 9y agoWhen I lived in Sydney I found that my car was sitting idle for the majority of the time. I did the sums and even with free parking at my apartment, it would have been cheaper for me to just rent a car for the days that I needed it (like a weekend trip, a shopping trip to the suburbs/ikea, etc) than to own it outright. I had coworkers that did that any it was fine. If you look at it financially, you owning a car is the same as owning an option to rent a car at any time. The less you drive it the more the ability to have it available costs you.
- evandijk70 9y agoIf owning a car and renting a car occasionally were exactly the same price, I'd still prefer to own a car. Picking up and doing the paperwork for a car is a big hassle, and takes away a large part of the convenience of owning a car.
- emj 9y agoIt's only a problem until you do it. If you are a regular customer the paper work is easy both for you mentally and for the provider of the rental car, and if you join a car pool you just check where there is a car free and go there to pick it up. I usually parked my cargo bicycle beside the carpool for easy transport home.
- daemin 9y agoExactly, you end up paying a premium for the option of having the car available at any time you want, also without filling out rental paperwork. Though for that you have to pay for regular maintenance, registration, licensing, insurance, parking, etc.
- xya3453 9y agoIn Sydney at least, there are a handful of car rental services that allow paperwork-free car pickup, the location of the nearest car, the rental procedure and payment are all handled entirely within an app.